How To Cook Tofu Recipes

Whenever I'm at the Asian grocery store, I buy large quantities of fresh yuba (tofu skin) whenever it's available. If you've wanted to try a vegetarian meat substitute but were suspicious it would taste bland, I urge you to try these yuba stuffed mushroom appetizers.

If you're not familiar with yuba (tàu hũ ky in Vietnamese), this food product is the film that's formed on the surface after boiling the soy beans in water. I bought ready-to-use fresh yuba, so all I needed to do was season it. I made a mixture of rice vinegar, brown sugar, cornstarch, garlic, ginger, tahini, yuba, five-spice powder and black sesame seeds.

The assembly was very easy. I stuffed the yuba filling into hollowed crimini mushrooms and garnished the appetizers with sunflower seeds for extra crunch. Voilà!

Yuba is called tàu hũ ky in Vietnamese and it's a fairly common ingredient in the Buddhist vegan diet. Most meals resemble and have the texture of meat, and yuba often plays the key role of meat substitute in the dish. I was surprised to discover that Costco now carries this product. Lulu sampled the yuba strips and liked them, so I brought home a package.

I used the ready-seasoned spicy yuba strips and made a stir fry of various vegetables such as sugar snap peans, cauliflower, onion wedges and cucumbers freshly picked from our garden.

My husband Lulu noticed that the Marketmore cucumbers he planted two months ago had started to produce. It's so pleasant getting new vegetables every day. I'll show you our beautiful bounty of beets, cucumbers and zucchini soon. Our tomato plants are already 5 feet tall but the fruit hasn't quite ripened yet. I love California!

Mattar paneer is a dish made with peas and Indian cheese. This time, I decided to make the same flavorful dish, but with fewer calories. To accomplish this, I substituted firm tofu in place of traditional paneer cheese.

I fried cubes of tofu the same way as I would paneer, then simmered them in a delectable, creamy onion and tomato curry sauce with green peas. If you’re looking to make a foray into veganism, this is the perfect way to start (see tips).

Of course, if - like my father-in-law - you feel cheated by the absence of golden chunks of fried cheese, you can always try the traditional mattar paneer recipe. I won’t tell!

I served them with steamed white rice and a Vietnamese soup called canh mồng tơi on the side. This dish is perfect for my house as everyone was satisfied and shared the same meal: rolled beef (I'll post the recipe soon) for the meat eaters and mock beef rolls for the vegetarians. Even if you don't have the same variety of diets in your house, you can of course still enjoy the benefits of this healthy and flavorful meal. If you've never tasted tofu skins before, this is a great introduction.